


We'll Always Have Each Other

by absepa



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Pining, Religious Conflict
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 03:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9949160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/absepa/pseuds/absepa
Summary: A couple of beers and the I'm Dead move lead Rhett and Link to reveal hidden feelings for each other.





	

12:42 am.

Link glanced at the the clock, yawning and stretching. He rubbed his eyes, noting that the headache that had set in a couple of hours ago had not receded. Sighing, he got up from the desk and reached into his dresser for some ibuprofen. He swallowed two with the last dregs of a Gatorade, and resigned himself to the fact that he needed to go through his notes at least one more time. He stretched his muscular shoulders again and settled back into his chair, trying to refocus on calculus.

He was interrupted a few minutes later when Rhett breezed into their dorm room laughing, preceded by a gust of beer breath. “Dang, Link! You still studying? You were at it when I left at eight o’clock!”

Link tried to hide his irritation. ‘Yes, Rhett. I’m still studying, because we have a final in seven hours. Or did you forget?”

“Naw, I didn’t forget,” Rhett drawled, head buried in the mini-fridge. He emerged with a cold Mello Yello and some cheese. “Gregg told me something amazing, man. He said I studied too much—‘you know what you know,’ he says—and it has changed my life. No more hours slaving over a stack of books for me. We had a blast tonight.” Rhett stretched out his lanky frame on the bottom bunk, feet hanging off the end.

“Yeah, I can tell,” Link retorted. “What are you doing drinkin’, Rhett?”

“What are you, chairman of the local temperance movement?” Rhett rolled his eyes. “We stumbled into a party. I only had a couple beers.”

Link looked pointedly in his direction, bright blue eyes narrowed. “I thought you were going to the social at campus ministries.”

“We started there, but it was boring,” Rhett shrugged. “We hung out at the arcade for a while, then some guys invited us to this party. You shoulda seen all the fine girls, Link. Miss Perfect was there.”

Link hesitated. He was definitely interested in Miss Perfect, but she was outweighed by concern about Rhett’s potential performance on the upcoming calculus final. “This test is 75% of our grade in this class, Rhett. Have you studied at all? Your dad will kill you if you flunk. And Miss Perfect has a boyfriend, anyway.”

“I won’t flunk. I’m good at calculus,” Rhett munched the last of his cheese nonchalantly. “Quit trying to be my mom, okay?”

“You know what? I don’t care if you fail,” Link said, shortly. He was tired and annoyed and didn’t feel like hiding it any longer. “I’m going to bed.” He ducked out the door of their room, headed for the bathroom down the hall.

When he returned, Rhett had stripped down to his boxers. Link pulled off his tattered t-shirt and soccer shorts, grabbed a bottle of water, and prepared to ascend the ladder to his top bunk. He tended to forget, though, how quickly Rhett could move. In a flash, Rhett was up and grabbing him, trying to tickle. He didn’t want Link to go to bed mad at him.

“Rhett—cut it—stop it, man!” he sputtered, trying to squirm out of reach. Rhett’s arms were so long, and their dorm room was so small, that Link couldn’t get away. “It’s one o’clock in the morning, you idiot.”

“You’re the idiot, dork,” Rhett laughed. He had a solid grip on his much smaller friend now. Grasping Link around the waist, he heaved him toward the bottom bunk. 

“Oh no, Rhett! Let me go!” Link knew what was coming, and he hated it. Rhett dumped him onto the bed, falling hard on top of him. He pressed Link into the mattress with his full weight. 

“Guess what, Link?”

“You’re a dickhead?” Link squeaked. He could barely breathe.

“I’m dead.”

Link groaned. Rhett had started doing this when they were kids, and he knew it drove Link nuts. Now that Rhett outweighed him by at least 30 pounds and had seven inches on him in height, it was nearly unbearable. Link didn’t struggle, though; he had learned that only made it worse.

A sudden flash of light from the hallway startled them both. A face poked around the open door, eyes wide at the sight of Rhett stretched out full-length on top of Link, both of them wearing only boxers. The face was gone before they could tell who it was.

Rhett grinned. “I’m still dead,” he whispered, near Link’s ear. He couldn’t help but torture his friend for a few more minutes.

Raising his head, he saw Link’s face illuminated in a shaft of light from the window, and drew in a sharp breath. God, his eyes were so blue. He lay still, unexpectedly stunned by the beauty in the planes and angles of the face he knew so well, the thick, dark lashes and strong jawline. Link hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and his cheeks were covered with stubble. Borne along on a stream of thoughts he usually managed to resist, Rhett brushed his own cheek against the raspy bristles. He exhaled, shakily, tantalizingly close to the plump, soft curve of Link’s lips.

“Rhett?” Link breathed. His head was spinning, and he wasn’t sure if it was from lack of air, or the sudden sensation that he was about to be kissed. When he met Rhett’s gaze, the intensity in those heavy-lidded, grey-green eyes made him tremble. Rhett’s heartbeat quickened at the sound of Link’s tentative whisper, and he felt himself stirring. Link’s eyes widened; they were pressed together so tightly that he couldn’t help but feel it, too. Link wasn’t sure what was happening, or if he even wanted it to stop, but there was one thing he was certain of.

“Rhett, I can’t breathe.”

Rhett was jolted out of his daze. He propped himself on his elbows, quickly drawing away. What was he thinking? He should have known better. He shouldn’t have had those beers; they were clearly opening doors in his mind that he had tried to keep firmly shut. He shouldn’t be looking at his lifelong best friend through the eyes of a lover. “Sorry,” he said, gruffly. “I wasn’t trying to suffocate you.”

“It’s okay,” Link laughed. “I thought it might scare you if I passed out.”

Rhett wouldn’t, couldn’t look him in the eye. “Man, it’s really late,” he mumbled. “I’m gonna turn in, okay?” He was afraid Link would have questions, and he didn’t know how to answer them. Cheeks burning with shame, he turned his back quickly, willing Link to take the hint and go to bed. 

“Oh--okay,” Link headed toward the top bunk. He was reeling. What had just happened? Had he imagined Rhett’s quickly indrawn breath, the cheek brushed softly against his own? Had he fallen asleep studying and dreamt it all? Was Rhett really about to kiss him? Link stretched out, mind and heart racing, sure that he was not going to be able to close his eyes. On the bunk below him, Rhett had crawled under his covers, and lay still. 

As Link lay staring into the dark, playing and replaying the scene in his mind, he began to notice that the bed was shaking. He jumped down gracefully, and sat beside Rhett, grasping his arm. 

“Rhett, talk to me.”

Rhett’s back was still turned, every muscle tight and trembling. He could barely speak. “Go to bed, Link.”

“You can’t just tell me to go to sleep and act like nothing happened, Rhett. It’s me. Talk to me.”

Rhett turned to him angrily. “And tell you what, Link? I don’t know any better than you do how to explain what just happened!”

“Whatever it was, we have to talk it out. Let me in there with you,” Link pleaded. Rhett hesitated, then lifted the covers. Link crawled into the narrow bunk beside him. They had shared a bed many times since they were kids, which typically resulted in Rhett being the victim of an unconscious spooning; Link was a wild sleeper. This time, though, he gently but purposefully reached for Rhett, wrapping his arms tenderly around his friend’s bare shoulders. Rhett allowed himself to be drawn in, laying his head on Link’s chest, marveling at narrowness of his waist; his own long arms nearly wrapped around twice. For a while they simply held each other. When Rhett’s voice felt steady again, he spoke.

“Link, I’m s-“

“You don’t need to apologize, Rhett. I felt something too.” Link said. 

“But I shouldn’t have let it happen, Link. It’s not fair to draw you into my messed-up fantasies.”

“Fantasies? So, you’ve thought about me…us…like that before?” 

“Yeah,” Rhett exhaled, shakily. “I’ve been trying to put it out of my mind for a while now. I guess having a couple of beers loosened my inhibitions enough to bring it back.” He hesitated again, then asked tentatively, “Have you ever thought about it?”

“Not specifically about kissing you or anything. But I’ve known for a while that the way I felt about you wasn’t just typical best friends.” Link went on, shyly, “Remember the day you told me that you had decided to give up basketball, so we could come to school together? That’s when I realized. I had been worried for so long that you were going to go off and play ball somewhere, and I would lose you. I cried that night, I was so relieved.”

“That’s when it really hit me, too,” Rhett said. It felt good to finally let it out, this thing he had bottled up for so long. To say the words and know that Link didn’t hate him for it. “My dad and I visited those schools and they made me scholarship offers and all I could think about was how I wasn’t sure if I could live without you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Rhett snorted. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Fair enough,” Link answered. “I was afraid you didn’t feel the same, and things would be weird.”

“Me too. I didn’t want to scare you,” Rhett said, quietly. He pulled away from Link slightly, propping himself up on his elbow. “But we’ve both said it. Now what?”

Link closed his eyes, sighing deeply. “I don’t know.”

“We could talk to our folks—“

“Rhett, my dad wouldn’t even discuss basic sex stuff with me,” Link retorted. “How am I supposed to tell him I’ve fallen in love with my best friend?”

“You—you’ve fallen in love with me?” Rhett was incredulous.

“What else could it be, if it isn’t love? I sure as hell never felt this way about any of the girls I dated.”

“Me neither.” Rhett leaned toward Link urgently. “Link, if this is meant to be, we can work it out. We can talk to our parents, make them understand.”

“Rhett, do you really think you can go waltzing in to Jimmy McLaughlin’s office and tell him that you’re in love with me?” It was Link’s turn for incredulity. “Do you know our families at all? Have you forgotten where we’re from?” 

“No, I haven’t forgotten where we’re from. But if we can just get them to listen, I think they will understand.”

“Your dad is a deacon in the church. What if they made him leave his position? You know how much it means to him.”

Rhett frowned. “Why would he have to leave his position?”

“Rhett, have you ever met a gay person in Buies Creek? Our families would definitely be run out of the church, maybe out of town. Don’t you remember what happened when that girl from Anjer got pregnant our sophomore year? It got so bad that they ended up moving to Raleigh. If we go home and tell them we’re in love and want to be a couple, it will be the biggest scandal to hit the town in years.”

Rhett sat up, drawing his knees to his chest. “Link, that’s so wrong. God told us to love one another.”

“Of course it’s wrong, but you know it’s true. Besides, God told us a lot of things. It's people who aren’t always great at putting them into practice.”

“If we love each other, we should be able to be together. That’s what’s true.”

“Maybe it would be if we lived somewhere else. If we could go to film school, and live in Hollywood…it’s probably different there. No one would know us. We could be a couple and they wouldn't would care. But in Buies Creek, it could ruin our families. What about my grandparents, Rhett? They’ve lived in Harnett County their whole lives." He held his hands out to Rhett, palms up, pleading. "I can’t live with that kind of guilt.”

“So what are we supposed to do, Link? Act we never had this conversation, that this never happened? Even though we both just admitted we love each other?” Link could feel the intensity of his gaze, even through the dark.

“We keep living the way we were brought up, Rhett,” Link sighed, hugging his own knees. “Finish school, get engineering jobs, find nice girls, get married and raise families. That’s what we’re expected to do.”

“And live the rest of our lives pretending that we’re just best friends? Can you do that, Link?” Rhett was angry now, voice shaking, hands balled into fists. “Because I’m not sure I can.”

Link’s heart began to pound. “We can’t let this come between us, Rhett.” He thought of the loneliness of his early childhood, always being picked last for teams, wishing he had a friend to share things with. Meeting Rhett in first grade had been like finding the other side of his soul. Whatever else happened, he knew couldn’t bear to go back to being that half-person. “I need you. Even if we can’t love each other,” he struggled to get the last words out, choking back a sob. “Even if all we can be is best friends.”

Rhett looked up sharply, the pain in Link’s voice making him instantly regret his choice of words. Rhett was the one who cried too easily; he hadn’t seen Link shed a tear since they were kids. He reached for him urgently. “Hey, it’s okay,” he could never bear to see Link hurt, especially knowing he had caused it. “C’mere. I’m not going anywhere.” He lay back against the pillow, pulling Link to his own chest this time. “It’s alright, bo.”

Link’s tears didn’t last long. Neither of them spoke. It was very late; wrapped in the warmth of Rhett’s arms, listening to his heartbeat, Link felt himself growing drowsy. “Rhett?”

“Yeah, bo?”

“What are we gonna do now? Promise me we’ll be alright. That things won’t be weird.”

“We’re gonna get up in a few hours and take a calculus final. And then we’re just gonna keep on living, like you said.” Rhett gently rubbed circles on Link’s back with his thumb. “Don’t worry, it will be okay. I promise. We’ll always have each other, Link.”

“I love you, Rhett,” Link whispered sleepily.

“I love you, too,” he answered, hoping that Link was too sleepy to hear the sorrow in his voice. Link slept, but Rhett lay awake for hours. Holding Link, strengthening his resolve, and praying he would be able to keep his promise.

The next morning, they were both exhausted and bleary-eyed, but, as college students, that was basically their natural state. They took the calculus final and passed; Link’s excessive studying paid off with the highest grade in the class, while Rhett somehow, miraculously, managed to eke out a C.

As time passed, neither of them mentioned that night. They avoided too much physical contact, afraid it might trigger another round of emotions that they weren’t prepared to handle. Rhett never did the I’m Dead move again. When the school year ended, they moved out of the dorm and into a much larger apartment with Gregg, both glad for the extra space it put between them. 

Rhett was surprised, a few months later, when his friend began pursuing a tall, pretty blonde he’d met at the skating rink; Link had never initiated relationships with girls before. His persistence paid off, and Christy turned out to be good for Link, strong and solid and level-headed. Over time, she became Rhett’s friend, too, and he overcame his initial pangs of jealousy enough to be genuinely happy for them when they fell in love. For his part, Rhett dated around, but had trouble staying with anyone for long. He secretly feared that part of him was broken, forever tied up in his feelings for Link.

When Rhett met a cute, petite brunette at church back home, it was Christy who encouraged him to ask her out, with Link’s enthusiastic support. Even though they weren’t living the life they wanted, Link had found happiness with Christy, and he wanted Rhett to experience it, too. Rhett was uncertain. Jessie was young—still in high school—and he didn’t want to lead her on, only for her to be hurt if he couldn’t love the way she deserved. With Link and Christy persisting, though, he finally relented, and soon found himself falling for her. He still loved Link deeply, and always would, but he had room in his heart for Jessie too, and wanted to make a life with her. Maybe he wasn’t broken after all. 

They decided to spend the summer after their sophomore year apart, Rhett teaching English in Slovakia, while Link operated carnival rides in California. Rhett wasn’t sure if the constant, aching loneliness he felt that summer was for Link or Jessie, but he channeled it into daily emails to his girlfriend. Link was miserable in California, to the extent that he was sent home from his job one day for being glum. He learned that summer that he was terrible at being alone, and decided to propose to Christy as soon as he returned home. Even though he didn’t take time to buy a ring first, she said yes. Within months, riding the wave of his best friend’s happiness and excitement, Rhett had proposed to Jessie, too. Fortunately, the girls were fast friends, and they became a happy foursome.

On Link’s wedding day, Rhett was glad to find himself too busy to think much. It passed in a blur, to be remembered only in glimpses and snatches. Link in his tux before the ceremony, shaking like a leaf and positively green from nervousness. Christy, all golden curls and radiant glow in a beautiful white gown, her eyes filled with tears as she saw Link’s face for the first time at the altar. Jessie in her bridesmaid dress, more beautiful than he had ever seen her, eyes shining as she smiled at him lovingly across the altar while Link and Christy kissed. Dancing close with Jessie under twinkling lights in the dim reception hall, feeling her tiny frame melt into his huge one, while secretly stealing glances at Link and Christy as they revolved slowly in the center of the dance floor, oblivious to everyone else in the room.

Rhett and Link hadn’t had much time to talk all day. While Christy was inside changing for their drive to Myrtle Beach, Link caught up with Rhett outside, clapping his hand on his friend’s shoulder. 

“Hey, man, sorry I haven’t had much time to talk. Thanks for everything. It’s been a great day.”

Rhett turned, smiling. “No problem, bo. I didn’t do much. We did manage to slip past Mr. Bobby’s armed guard and decorate Christy’s new car.”

“I saw that. Y’all gonna get me shot by my new father-in-law before I even get to enjoy my wedding night,” Link grinned, then his face softened. He reached to shake Rhett’s hand, pulling him in close. “Christy will be out in a second. C’mere and give me a hug before we leave.”

Rhett was startled, but let himself be drawn in. They hadn’t been this close since that night. Link lingered, wrapping his free arm around Rhett’s back. Rhett felt warm breath on his ear. Pressing nearer, so none of the crowd gathered around for the bouquet toss could hear, Link whispered, “I will miss you. We’ll always have each other, Rhett.” He drew away, smiling shakily, as Christy emerged from door of the reception hall, ready to toss the bouquet. Rhett attempted to return the smile, squeezing Link’s hand hard, but couldn’t find his voice to speak.

Blinded by a haze of tears, Rhett missed the bouquet toss. He didn’t see seeing Link and Christy climb into the car, although he heard the raucous cheer that went up. As he blinked his vision clear, he saw only their taillights, quickly receding. Jessie came bounding up, beaming, clasping Christy's bouquet. She grasped his hand, the one Link had held only moments before.

“Hey, sweetheart! Did you see? I caught the bouquet! Looks like we really are next. You’re gonna be stuck with me, mister.”

Rhett carefully composed his features before turning from the boy he loved, toward the girl who was his future. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, baby.”


End file.
